"Cooperation with Libya and Tunisia reduced illegal migration flows by 60%," Meloni says.

Rome, June 5, 2024 (Lana): Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced a 60% decline in the number of illegal migrants compared to the same period last year.

The Italian News Agency (AKI) quoted Meloni yesterday as saying, "This decline was achieved thanks to cooperation relations with North African countries, most notably Libya and Tunisia."

According to the agency, Meloni is scheduled to visit Albania today, Wednesday, to inspect the construction of two centers to receive migrants funded by Rome as part of an agreement, the first of its kind with a non-member European country, to receive illegal migrants rescued off the Italian coast.

The latest official Italian figures revealed an unprecedented decline in the number of illegal migrants coming from eastern Libya, with only 203 leaving between January 1 and May 29.

According to the Italian Ministry of Interior, 25,344 arrivals from the Tunisian route and 21,561 from the Libyan route were registered between January 1 and May 28, 2023, but only 8,761 migrants from Tunisia (-65%) and 10,700 people from Libya (-50%) have arrived since the beginning of the year.

PM Meloni confirmed during her visit to Libya last May that cooperation with Libya in the area of combating illegal migration flows will remain essential, noting that this file has absolute centrality in her country's policy, in press statements following her meeting with the head of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbaiba.

=Lana=